The Role of Spiritual Knowledge in the Divine Plan

Self-Love

The following is an excerpt from a speech delivered by Younus AlGohar.

Fanaticism

Messiah Foundation International has come up with a diagnostic solution of ongoing global terrorism. We understand that the reason behind this global terrorism today is the radicalisation from a certain denomination in Islam.

In the era before 9/11, such individuals were known as fundamentalists. ‘Fundamentalism’ is a term that was coined by a think tank in Western society to refer to people who strictly follow the religion and disapprove of Western values.

Then, from fundamentalism, they took a big leap to extremism.

Fanaticism is the cogitation in which people become so obsessed with their religious beliefs that they become irrational. This comes with brainwashing.

I watched a movie in which there were two women in love with one man. One was a calm character and the other was very hyper; by hook or crook, she wanted to be with her beloved. When she found out that her beloved loved someone else, she took to physically harming him.

When you don’t manage to obtain what you want, you lose sanity and you become irrational; this is the state in which you become a fanatic.

True Love of God

For example, no prophet or messenger – not even God – has given this creation a more sublime knowledge than what Lord Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi has given to us, His followers. There is no truth in comparison to the truth that has been presented by Lord Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi. There is no group of people in this world, in any religion or spiritual order who love their Master more than members of MFI do.

According to neo-spiritual principles of the Western society today, we perfectly fit into the personality cult regime. However, we have not lost sanity and we have not become irrational.

This is because the teachings of Lord Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi are a beautiful combination of the Exterior Knowledge and Interior Knowledge.

On one hand, the teachings of Lord Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi connect hearts of the masses with divinity. On the other hand, the teachings of Lord Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi connect a human being with another upon the principles of equity, mutual love, societal harmony and mutual respect for every single human soul on Earth.

If you ask Hindus, they think they are the best nation on Earth; they think Muslims are impure. If you ask Jews, they think they are the best. If you ask Muslims, they think the truth for the first time was brought by Prophet Mohammad; they believe the pre-Islamic era was full of darkness, infidelity and sorcery. However, they also admit the fact that Prophet Mohammad was the last of all the prophets and messengers – which clearly indicates the fact that there had been more than 124,000 prophets. Most definitely, these prophets were designated and anointed by the same God who sent Prophet Mohammad. The knowledge they brought upon their groups would have come from the same God. Even so, Muslims believe that Jews, Hindus, Sikhs and Christians are infidels; they think they are the best.

We also say the same but we are not fanatics. We are not extremists and we do not hate. We love everybody. We love Hindus, we love Christians, and we love Jews – because we want everybody to become the best. We are not playing a game. It is not as if we are in a business where I become a billionaire and my counterpart goes bankrupt.

If any religion, group of people or faith practises Exterior Knowledge only and are naive to knowledge of spirituality, then they will eventually become hateful.

A Muslim boy in India was killed because he was eating beef. They said, ‘He was eating beef, so he must die.’ That’s terrible. He is eating beef according to the allowance set forth by his religion. Hindus regard cows to be sacred; they may practise their belief, but if someone wants to eat beef, then let him. For example, Muslims do not eat pork. However, when we go to United Arab Emirates, we see restaurants serving pork. When Muslims should not eat pig, they don’t eat it; but they don’t stop others. Go by the rules and regulations of your religion and let others go by the rules and regulations of their religion.

It is very interesting to note that in the Religion of God (Divine Love) by Lord Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi, He said, ‘All these religions think they are the best. A Hindu says he is the best. A Muslim says he is the best. A Jew says he is the best and a Christian says he is the best. But Gohar Shahi says, “The best among all of you is one who has God’s love in his heart even if he doesn’t practise any religion.”’

The best among you is one whose heart is filled with God’s love. When you heart is filled with God’s love, you do not hurt or harm anybody, and this will show that you are the best. How can you consider yourself the best if you are causing distress to every single human being on Earth and spreading terrorism? If people have become uneasy because of your existence, are living in fear and are scared?

The best is one who benefits all; whose existence on earth is benefitting all human beings and everybody is safe by him.

Lord Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi said, ‘It’s not about being the best; it’s about loving God or not loving God. If you love God, you will love humanity. If you don’t love God you will not love humanity.’

Whether you practise a religion or not, it doesn’t really matter. The truth is, only the religious people do not love humanity. Those who practise religion [rigidly] don’t love humanity and those who do not believe in religions – even atheists – are helping poor people. They don’t hurt anybody or harm anybody. I doubt that God would want to love somebody who practises his religion but hates humanity – as opposed to somebody who says, ‘I don’t believe in God,’ but at the same time, he is helping a lot of people on Earth.

Such people have a belief system and in believing in all those principle universal truths set by God, no change is seen in them; [rather] their character worsens. Not only do they hate humanity, but they have become so intolerant that they do not want to see any other sect or group of people with a different set of beliefs on Earth. This is extreme intolerance; they cannot coexist with other religious people.

His Divine Eminence Gohar Shahi said, ‘It doesn’t matter whether you believe in a religion or you don’t believe in it. Learn to love God; that’s what matters.’

Religions have set limitations. A Hindu will befriend another Hindu and a Muslim will befriend another Muslim.

When someone has liberated themselves from the limitations of the religion and are now focused on acquiring God’s love, then they will befriend anybody who wants to acquire and obtain divine love.

Obtaining divine love does not come by listening to lectures. These lectures will give you some knowhow of the path; however, you will manage to learn to love God only when you are initiated on to the Spiritual Path, when your souls are awakened and nurtured with the divine light and proximity of the Spiritual Guide.

The following is Younus AlGohar’s response to being asked to comment on Islamophobia.

I don’t like the word Islamophobia because people do not hate Islam. Islam has been practised for many years and people were happy with Muslims.

The term Islamophobia has recently been coined by terrorists to change their image in public.

It is not Islam that is training people to become terrorists.

Wahhabiphobia or Terroristphobia would be more accurate terms. Islam has nothing to do with terrorism.

Coining the term Islamophobia is part of the conspiracy of terrorists. They are funded by Saudi Arabia and the State of Qatar. They have a lot of finances available to them and they are working on different fronts.

They are raising the issue of Islamophobia as part of their recent struggle by them to brush up their image in the United States of America and Canada. There is no such thing as Islamophobia.

Prophet Mohammad, the Prophet of Islam, said, ‘Killing one human being is equal to killing the entire humanity.’

How can the Islamic teachings support the ideology of hatred and terrorism?

Islam is the greatest enemy of terrorism.

Islam does not allow anybody to engage in hate preaching or killing humanity, especially innocent people.

Terrorists are just trying to cover up their reality. They are trying to portray a different picture of them by calling this fear factor among people Islamophobia.

Interview on the Liquid Lunch programme with Hugh Reilly and co-host Sandra Kyrzakos. Younus AlGohar opens up about his views on radical Islam (Wahhabism), Islamophobia and the tensions between different groups.

Your Holiness, can I know when you started your missionary work and what prompted you to start it? It will be very interesting for my readers.

It is a very simple question but the answer is very lengthy.

I was born in a Muslim family. When you are born into a certain religious environment, you are strictly involved in that religion and you don’t want to know about any other religion. To a certain degree you become short-sighted, and so was I, because I was not exposed to any other form of the truth. I was only aware of Islam.

As I grew into a man from a boy, I wanted to practise the religion but I did not feel connection with God and I saw a lot of contradictions.

I didn’t see what I studied in the religious books of Islam being practised. People practised quite the opposite of what is taught in the religion. For example, they are told, ‘Do not harm others, take care of everybody and love everybody,’ but I did not see that amongst people. I was really perplexed, very restive and I stopped practising the religion.

Did you question your parents about matters of religion?

I questioned religious scholars. I used to go to a mosque and question the religious scholars about why there are so many different denominations within Islam – why one group of Muslims believes in one thing and the another group rejects the ideology of the first group altogether. Why are there so many differences, whereas they all study and believe in the same Quran? They didn’t have answers; they just wanted to prove that they were right and the other group was wrong.

I was a little more fed up than people normally are. So I stopped practising and I focused on my studies.

I was a little hesitant. I told him, ‘Look, I’m already fed up with the religion. If you take me there and I am further confused, then you are in hot waters.’

But I went there with him and I listened to the discourse given by His Divine Grace Lord Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi. It was all about divine love, spirituality, how to be able to love and [it showed] hatred for nobody. So I started to practise spirituality and I found the content of my heart straightaway.

I felt some light emanate from His Divine Eminence Gohar Shahi and it entered into my heart. I felt immense pleasure and an overwhelming sense like something is empowering me. I rejoiced; I was very happy internally.

I instantly realised, ‘This is where I belong.’

After that day, I followed His Divine Eminence Gohar Shahi’s instructions and teachings. After a few years, I found out that humanity is the best religion and we should not hate anybody. Everybody is the creation of God; Hindus should not hate Muslims and Muslims should not hate Hindus.

Then, my mind engrossed the even vaster understanding of creation. It engrossed the meaning of love; how we should respect each other’s presence and religions.

It was spiritual knowledge plus application – how to apply spirituality in our day to day life. The teachings of HDE Gohar Shahi were not merely a chapter from any sacred book. Rather, it was a divine spiritual formula by the practice of which you can activate your souls, spiritualise them and be able to connect to the divine powerhouse: God. The same God who created all prophets and messengers, who made all these religions established by these prophets.

Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism – they are different paths leading to one destination. That’s what I realised.

So I then started to spread the word around. We have taken this mission to all continents of the globe, [visiting] Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan, countries in Europe, the United States of America and Canada. We have branches all over the world.

Especially given the circumstances where Islamic terrorism is taking its toll and a lot of people are suffering – it has become a threat to the peace of the globe – these teachings are very important for people to adopt.

This is the only one solution for the world to stop radicalisation which is taking place very rapidly all over the world.

Many different religions are getting radicalised and people are becoming intolerant. They are become extremists and fanatics. You become a fanatic and extremist when you are not connected to God.

[When you are an extremist] you only think of yourself and your group; you think you are the best and everybody else is bad – and that they do not have the right to live in this world.

When you learn to respect humanity, you don’t become an extremist. You have a soft heart and a soft corner for everybody.

I gained a lot of experience being born in Pakistan, where there are religiously rigid people. They are so rigid in their understanding that another group within Islam is not tolerated by them, let alone other people of different religions.

Coming out from that background and becoming a spiritual leader and talking about peace will surprise everybody, including yourself!

It really surprises people when they listen to me, and towards the end they ask me, ‘Where were you born?’ and I tell them, ‘I was born in Pakistan.’ They can’t believe their ears.

Can you change [people’s] attitudes about being Pakistani or Indian?

It is not about being Pakistani or Indian. It is about who you are and what you practise. You see, the problem is, the television and the media will only show bad things.

But the good things which are taking place in all countries of the world are not given publicity. So people think, ‘It’s all bad, everywhere.’

But good missionary work is not given publicity and people do not become aware of such things.

For example, Pakistan. People only know one image of Pakistan: terrorists. People will be surprised to know that the Universal Leader, the Kalki Avatar, is emerging from Pakistan.

People have only seen terrorists from Pakistan; not every single Pakistani is a terrorist and not every single Muslim is a terrorist. There are good people and bad people everywhere, in every religion, in every country and in every nation.

I mean we have Sufism, a branch of Islam, in Pakistan. Sufism is a beautiful practice and there are Sufis all over the world.

In a way similar to Lord Buddha, [Sufis] purify themselves, become attached to God, become Godly, and gain miraculous powers. The love everybody. People of all religions revere, respect and love them. Because they are very close to God, people go to them pray to God; through them, God listens to their prayers.

There was a Muslim Sufi from Sri Lanka by the name of Bawa Muhaiyaddeen. He was born in Sri Lanka and he travelled to the United States of America. He died there and is buried in Philadelphia. Many Americans love and they follow him; they did not convert to Islam because Sufis do not ask you for conversion; they teach you how to love humanity and God. That is the basic principle of Sufism: love.

So, Your Holiness there is no conversion in this, only preaching about love?

No, it’s not a religion, it’s a spirituality. We are spiritual people. We want Hindus to become good Hindus, Christians to become good Christians. They are all good for except two things: love and spirituality.

The core of their religion is missing from their lives: spirituality. When they learn spirituality, a Hindu will become a good Hindu and a Christian will become a good Christian.

You will become a good Hindu when you are connected to Bhagwan.

When we see a spoilt child, most people will say, ‘They didn’t have a mother to train and teach them; this is why they are spoiled.’

When a child is away from the mother, the child doesn’t get to learn moral or ethical values. In a similar way, you are Hindu, Muslim or Christian but you are not connected to God.

When you are not connected to God, you don’t love God. When you don’t love God how can you love another human being?

when you are connected to God and learn to love God, then you understand, ‘all creation is created by God, if I don’t love them then God will be unhappy with me.’

So you begin to love everybody. And the same is the principle in Sufism.

Sufism is actually another name given to spirituality. It’s part of Islam; this is why it is called Sufism.

Spirituality is the core of every religion.

Among the Hindus, there are so many Sufis like Sant Kabeer Daas etc. There are so many saints in Christianity. You become a saint with the help of spirituality. In Judaism, Sufism is like Kabbalah: the inner dimension of the religion where you purify your heart, where you remove all the negativity from you heart.

You become a positive person whose heart is filled with love, compassion and tolerance.

[People of] every single religion invited His Divine Eminence Gohar Shahi to their worship places. HDE Gohar Shahi went to mosques and delivered lectures there. He activated their hearts with spirituality. He was invited into Christian churches and Hindu temples.

People of all religions who had happened to listen to HDE Gohar Shahi were inspired by His message.

All these religions that love spirituality, love HDE Gohar Shahi. His message is not about religion; His message is about humanity and love.

I have been coming to Sri Lanka for the past 13 years now. There are thousands of people in Sri Lanka who are inspired by these teachings. There are Hindus, Muslims and Christians but they don’t hate each other.

Now, you said there are thousands who have been inspired with this humanity, this spirituality. Do you visit Sri Lanka every year and do you inform this segment each time? What is the response like?

Yes, almost every year. We have an organisation here, Kalki Avatar Foundation. They organise programmes for me before I come. The response is wonderful because we are not taking anything away from them; we are giving. You know, often gurus come here and before you can even see them, they will ask for 100 000 Rupees. This is their business. But this is not our business – this is our service to humanity. People are fed up of so-called gurus.

Your Holiness, you are in touch with God; so what are the powers that you have? I was told by one of the ministers that you have the power to treat patients with terminal illness.

I have a methodology and I apply that method. The power will come from God – the God of Hindus, God of Buddha, God of Muslims – to whomsoever he wishes to heal. If God wants to heal them, they are healed. I am not God; I am human being.

Now, out of all the countries that you travel to, which country do you think you have the largest following?

Almost everywhere, because the message is so beautiful and it is the necessity of time.

People are getting tired of religions and hatred.

They look to religions the religions don’t have any answer to the current situation. Only through spirituality can they liberate themselves from these limitations and boundaries of religions and nations.

We are all human beings. My blood is red and your blood is red, we are no different from each other.

You can call yourself a Buddhist, Hindu or Muslim but at the end of the day you have the same God, you are the same people. Why should we hate each other?

You are quite right. Now, Your Holiness, only a limited crowd knows this. How do you want to reach the others? Even I came to know when one of your ministers told me about it; but most of the people don’t know. How are you thinking to give the message to the people?

The message is getting across and it’s a good thing that the media is now helping. However, the problem is only the interested people will contact us. Some people are more into making money. If this interests you, only then you will contact me. There are so many journalists, but not every single journalist is coming to interview me.

In a similar way the message has been spoken about and it has been going across the country for the last 13 years. Almost everybody in Sri Lanka is aware of our activities and what we are doing; however, what happens when you are not interested? Even when something is going on in front of your eyes, you are alien to it because you are not paying attention.

Obviously, I hope you will understand and appreciate that not everybody wants to love.

Some people love to love and share love; and unfortunately some people, by nature, hate to love.

I think everybody has this element of love in them, but some people apply that element of love into their business. Some people love their jobs, like the cricketer, Yassik Malinga. When you apply all your love into one field, you can’t use that love for anything else.

The element of love has been given by God to everybody to a certain degree. But some people use it for their business and some others use it for their profession.

It’s good to love your profession.

In certain ways, it’s good and in certain ways, it is not good. It’s good because if you love your profession, you become highly professional; people admire you and they are inspired by you. But when you love your profession, you don’t have time for anybody else. It happens to so many people. You become blind when you love money; you can do anything for money.

I understand money is a necessity of life; but when you love money, it is dangerous.

I am talking about the element of love being utilised to the extreme. When you empty your heart onto something, then you cannot love anything else.

Have you read the play written by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet? They were crazy about each other, they were completely cut off from the rest of the world. We have people in our day-to-day lives who love their girlfriends and wives; but their love is not to that extreme. The question is: can they go into that extreme like Romeo and Juliet did? No. Some people are designed to go to that extreme by God and only they can do that.

In regards to people who have extreme love for money, I think this is what is designed from God for them.

We give our message of love to everybody, but not everybody is interested. Some people find hatred more pleasurable. And some people are very happy because they have a loving soul in them. It’s more about who you are inside, about your soul.

Some people enjoy hurting and harming others – and some people cant bear to see such things. It is about the nature. God created man in different natures. Some people are prone to being compassionate, kind and nice to everybody. On the other hand, some others wants to be nice, kind and compassionate to themselves only; they want all the comfort to themselves. Such people can’t see anyone flourish; they become jealous and they will take measures to destroy you.

In this world, there is a mixture of people. This message is for those who want to love and be loved; this message will not change people who indulge in the luxury of hatred. Obviously, there are people who love to hate: Taliban, Al Qaeda and the terrorists.

The truth is the truth. Somebody has to speak out. If you don’t say that, then you are committing a crime against humanity. These terrorists hate to love anybody; they pose as being Muslim but they are not Muslim. God has never said anything that they preach to be Islam. What they are doing is their own conception and perception. They are hateful souls.

What else do you have to say about your mission?

Sri Lanka is the place where the first messenger of God, Adam, was sent by God. This is a very sacred an special place in the eyes of God. This is where humanity originated from. This place is very important; the spiritual revolution is being brought up here. My Lord told me that Jesus Christ has returned – as foretold in Christian and Muslim faiths – and he is present in Sri Lanka somewhere. Sri Lanka is under the blessings of Jesus Christ and Lord Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi.

We had a ruthless war for 30 years.

Yes. The act of killing and shedding blood has been carried out since the first man came to the world, but now it’s getting better. The most important thing that we should do in Sri Lanka is stop discrimination and love everybody. Love Singhalis, love Tamils, Hindus, Buddhists Muslims. We should all be Sri Lankans we should not be divided into nations. First you should be a Sri Lankan, then a Hindu etc. Your first and foremost identity should be Sri Lankan; this is the key.

It’s very important that you identify yourself as Sri Lankan first; then with the help of spirituality, you learn to respect everybody’s presence and you learn to love everybody. If you do these two things you’re living in paradise. It’s a very simple thing but even then it’s not very simple for people.

Most people in all religions want to love but there are black sheep in every group who don’t let it happen. We have to be cautious about those black sheep. The public wants to love; but then we have politicians. You vote for them because of which they become either a prime minister or a president but you don’t know what is on their agenda. Are they serving your interest or their own? If the politicians aren’t corrupt and they become sincere, then the nations will flourish. If the politicians are corrupt, the nations will not flourish.

The world has to become a good place, it has been destined. But before it becomes a good place, you have to sort out the loving souls from the hateful ones. This sorting is very important and we are getting closer every day.

Do you think, Your Holiness, that to change the minds of the people can be done easily or very soon?

It’s not about the mind – to have pain for others – it’s about your heart.

We have to change the heart to change the way people think.

A friend of mine used to have migraines; he used to cry and his eyes would become red. But I never realised how painful a migraine can be until I experienced one myself. When you go through that experience, only then you realise what it is.

Therefore, when people experience love then they will love to love; when they reap the fruits of love and tolerance and peace.

Sometimes peace is established by weapons, but that peace is very temporal.

Eternal peace will come by enlightening the hearts and changing the way people think. The real solution to establishing peace is in spirituality. When you change their hearts, they will stop hating each other and the problem is solved.

If one person is given less rights and the other is given more, this will create a sense of deprivation which will in turn create lot of problems such as jealousy and hatred. There should be equality; everyone should be given equal rights. This is a general understanding – I am not talking about politics. When everybody has the same rights they wont hate each other.

I went to a Pakistani school in Karachi where even the teachers do not know English. One day, I saw His Divine Eminence Gohar Shahi in my dream; He was telling me, ‘You should learn English. The next day I went to see HDE Gohar Shahi and said, ‘This is what I saw in my dream.’

HDE replied, ‘Perhaps in the future, you will be involved in widespread of this mission. So I want you to learn the language.’ So I started self-study. Sometimes in dreams also, HDE would tell me how to speak.

I worked really hard. I used to go to the British Council Library and a library in the American Consulate in Karachi. I would sit there for 5-6 hours every day and read books.

Turmoil and hard work will never go into a waste.

The effects of that hard work started to come up to the surface. When I came to live in England 23 years ago, I had an opportunity to brush up my language skills. I went to a college and then I spent 3 years doing a Proficiency in English Diploma from Cambridge University.

One thing is very significant and prominent: when you speak, every word must be pronounced correctly. If you do not pronounce it correctly, people will not understand what you are saying. When I came to England, I would speak to people there and they wouldn’t understand me. I used to think to myself, ‘I thought I learned English.’ I used to go back home and check in the dictionary whether the word that I said to them really existed; the word was right but they wouldn’t understand it because I was not pronouncing it correctly.

Never Give Up

It is not difficult. Nothing is difficult for a willing heart. Nothing is impossible.

One day I was alone with HDE Gohar Shahi; we were travelling to South Africa by plane. I asked HDE Gohar Shahi about fate. I asked, ‘What is fate? Everything is written about our life by God; then why should we waste our time when everything is written?’

HDE said to me, ‘Well, some decisions about your life are pre-written. But as long as you have a willing heart, then even your fate will not disturb you.’

One day, HDE Gohar Shahi said to me, ‘Never give up.’

This is an attribute of the Devil: he never gives up. For example, if a man becomes a Friend of God, it is literally not possible for the Devil to mislead or misguide him. He knows that that man is a Friend of God and he is under severe protection of God; but even then he does not give up.

HDE Gohar Shahi said, ‘That is what I like about the Devil: he doesn’t give up.’

When you do not give up on wrong things, then you are stubborn and God will hate you. But when you do not give up on right things, you are a Friend of God. If you do not give up on wrong things, you are a stubborn man; but if you do not give up on right things, you are steadfast.

If you listen to me and say, ‘Wow, that’s beautiful,’ and you go home and forget about it, then it is useless. For somebody who really wants to change his life, there are many different classified and unclassified resources from where he can learn.

The message of His Divine Eminence Gohar Shahi is divine love. It is not just a message; it is a full package which includes esoteric knowledge, divine esoteric methodology and then HDE Gohar Shahi’s esoteric supervision. One learns to enlighten the heart and spiritualise the character as per the spiritual philosophies of HDE Gohar Shahi under the blissful, auspicious and all-time supervision of HDE Gohar Shahi.

Spirituality as it has been explained by HDE Gohar Shahi, I believe is the purest form of spirituality. Nothing is exaggerated and nothing is lessened in its reality.

This world has witnessed not too many saints. Most of the saints who were sent into this world were not appointed as universal teachers. They lived within their own little world; most of the saints spent their lives in jungles. Those who returned to the world from the jungles, because they were not appointed as universal teachers by God, therefore they confined their teachings to a smaller group of disciples. People did not have first-hand experience of how a saint lives, behaves and conducts himself.

There is a trend in Pakistan. Sunni Muslims claim they are those who believe in the saints. And, apparently, there are thousands of people in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh who are self-proclaimed, fake saints. Most of these individuals come from the families of saints. For example, if there was a saint in a family some generations back, after that point, every child that is born in that family is [supposedly] a saint.

You are not going to be a saint just because your father is a saint. And you are not going to be deprived by God just because your father did not believe in God.

It is different. In spirituality, nothing is inherited. In spirituality, you are self-made. It is you; whatever it is, it is you. If you become a saint, you will become a saint because of what you have done. If you are a sinner, you are a sinner because of your bad deeds.

To Accept vs. To Believe

Spiritual terminology is connected to practical experiences. In our day-to-day life, the words that we use have a totally different meaning in spiritual terminology. The Christians say, ‘We believe in Jesus,’ and the Muslims say, ‘We believe in Mohammad and we believe in the saints.’ But they don’t know what it is to believe in the saints.

To accept is different from to believe.

With discussion and knowledge, you accept things that you did not accept when you did not have knowledge.

But because of the difference in terminology, people think that they believe in the saints. They do not believe in the saints; they accept them.

If you ask them, ‘How do you believe?’

They say, ‘Well, we heard that they are saints.’

That is not a valid answer to the question.

For example, if you say, ‘We eat Nihari (a curry),’ and I ask you, ‘How do you eat Nihari?’ you would respond by saying, ‘We bring it from a restaurant, pour it in our plates and we eat it with bread.’

‘That’s good. Now how do you believe in the saints? Have you met any saints?’

‘No, we heard about them.’

‘Alright. What do you know about them?’

‘They were great saints, they showed miracles.’

‘Is there any miracle of those saints that you have experienced in your life?’

‘No.’

Similarly, when people say that they believe in God, this is not believing; this is acceptance. People accept that there is a God. People accept that there was Jesus and Mohammad. To believe is different.

In order to believe, you have to be familiar with the powers, teachings – and with your own personal observation and experiences.

Is it enough to ‘believe in’ a saint, prophet or God? The meaning of to believe in in day-to-day life that people understand is [equivalent to saying] ‘I accept him.’ They do understand this difference. When they want to say, ‘I accept God,’ they say, ‘I believe in God.’

God said, ‘I am the total provider,’ so if you really believe in God, sit at home because God will provide food for you. You accept God; you don’t believe in God. Then how will you truly believe in God? With the help of the knowledge and teachings that God reveals upon messengers and prophets. When that knowledge enters your heart, you heart is enlightened and God’s light has entered your heart; that light of God in your heart will make a bridge between your heart and God. That is to believe in God.

When you actually start receiving the benevolence and spiritual grace through whatever source, then in that particular source, you begin to believe.

We try to stop untoward, miserable and deplorable incidents of terrorism; however, nobody can actually stop it from happening. There are certain preventive measures that a government and security agencies can take; but with all the security and preventive measures taken, we can see there are incidents taking place. This is because you cannot guard every home in the country; you cannot guard every school in the country. You cannot guard every other place!

We have been saying to the world that spiritual knowledge is the key to the solution. Fanaticism, extremism and terrorism are the result of misinterpretation and misunderstanding of the religion in the religion. Misinterpretation is not the most suitable word; sometimes, the religious scholars do make some mutual improvisations, knowing the fact that they are fiddling and tampering with the divine text. This improvisation is the main cause of this widespread terrorist activity today.

To educate people, to give them the right interpretation and to guide them to a sound understanding of the religion is not a one-day job. You cannot have it by listening to one lecture.

Always remember: spiritual knowledge is not something that you will be able to adopt by choice.

For example, you cannot say, ‘Spiritual knowledge is now here. Let’s do it,’ and you will be enlightened. There are selected individuals who are meant to adopt spiritual knowledge and a spiritual lifestyle.

Not everybody is suitable for spirituality.

People who are meant to adopt spirituality have a subtle understanding of life. They have a subtle temperament. You can tell their lifestyle is very close to a spiritual lifestyle, even without spiritual knowledge. This is because this is how they have been created by nature: loving, caring, considerate, resolute and calm. They are those who, even if they don’t love everybody, they don’t hate anybody.

Even with the help of spirituality, you cannot turn every Tom, Dick and Harry into a good human being, because this spiritual knowledge will not work on everybody. It will only work on certain individuals: those who are meant to adopt it. This is the divine plan; nobody can alter or bring changes to this divine plan.

The Divine Plan

You cannot stop the most obvious from happening. Armageddon, the great battle, has been foretold by many prophets and messengers. Emergence of the Anti-Christ and then arrival and advent of the Awaited One [have also been foretold]. The Awaited One will have the Army of Love. His teachings will teach love.

Only those will learn to love who want to learn to love.

Those whose nature has been nurtured with hatred and evil traits are not going to learn anything either from the knowledge of spirituality or from the company of the Awaited One.

‘Spread spiritual knowledge, teach people to love.’ It is a wonderful slogan that we raise every day. Messiah Foundation International has been presenting the formula of peace and love; however we also need to be realistic in a sense that not every single individual will want to learn to love, because not everybody has been created to love by God.

God has a plan according to which the world is going to be divided into two different groups. This division is not going to be based on religion; it will be based on love and hatred.

Those who love humanity will flock around the Awaited One no matter what religion they practise; whether they are Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Jews, Christians and even those who don’t practise any religion. All the loving souls, whether they come from France, England Canada, United States, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Pakistan, etc – whoever they are, if they have a loving soul in them, it doesn’t matter what religion they practise. They have been destined to flock around the Awaited One, Imam Mehdi/Kalki Avatar/Messiah Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi. Those who have a hateful soul and mind, no matter what religion they practise, will join ISIS, Taliban, Al-Shahbab, Boko Haram – all these names are the names of the organisations who preach hatred, who are murderers and who hate humanity.

They are deceiving their religious fellowmen by saying, ‘This is Islam.’ What they are projecting under the banner of Islam has nothing to do with Islam, Quran or any other religion. This is their own concocted story; this is their own fabrication and literary improvisation.

It is such a terrible thing to see that different countries have different Islamic terrorist groups today. You have terrorist groups in Lebanon, Algeria, Egypt and all these North African countries. Then you have the international hub of terrorism: Saudi Arabia. It is very unfortunate that Saudi Arabia has not only the Muslim’s Kaaba, but also the Kaaba of Terrorism.

The damage has been done. Hate-preaching has been carried out for many decades now. Even if you start stimulating brains with love and knowledge of spirituality, you’re going to have to wait for at least two generations.

You want to teach people to love who are already involved in hate-crimes? I don’t think so; the damage has been done. If you want to teach love, then you want to concentrate on the new generation. Tell them what the truth is from babyhood.

I would not be wrong if I say, ‘What they’re teaching in the mosques, in their religious curriculum, is dangerous.’ Because the theory is coming from their books. They will say, ‘This is a religious school, a mosque, and we’re reciting the Quran.’ Yes, but the interpretation is not coming from the Quran. The interpretation which is coming from them has nothing to do with the Quran; this improvisation is coming from an ugly, hateful mind and a hateful soul.

Obviously, people who have become murderers, culprits, and who have become trigger-happy are not going to revert.

The world community needs to draw a line. They should give their citizens a charter which should explain what activities can be regarded as suspicious and what activities can be regarded as harbouring terrorism.

This charter should tell them that only the plain, simple translation of the Quran is allowed; no interpretation should be allowed in any country. All other books which are known to be interpretation of the Quran should be banned. And why can’t it be done? I can give you an example of why it is possible.

If you go to Saudi Arabia, people oftentimes who are travelling there from Pakistan are not allowed to bring in any Islamic book from their country. Why? It is the same Quran. They say, ‘Yes it is, but we do not agree with the translation.’ You can pick this habit from Saudi Arabia and impose it in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, etc.

I believe the Quran does not teach terrorism. If you read the simple translation of the Quran, you will never become a terrorist.

Everyone claims to love the Lord more than they love anybody or anything else. But in reality, a human being loves himself more than he loves anybody else.

We help others and exhibit generosity for our own satisfaction and pleasure. Self-love is very discreet and you never happen to notice how much you love yourself.

In loving your own self, you exhibit love to others thinking this love will bounce back and that you will gain respect and love.

A common man will never think that he loves himself. But you love your children because they are your children and you love your wife because she is your wife. You do not feel the same love for another person’s children or wife.

Have you ever thought about how much you love yourself? Most people don’t think about it.

Everybody loves himself but you cannot love anybody else until you stop loving yourself.

Either you love yourself, or you love your wife, children, business or the Lord. You cannot love two different things at the same time, including yourself. If you say, ‘I love so-and-so,’ it means you love yourself and that person.

When you love others, you love them for your own sake. You actually love yourself and you express love to your children, wife, parents and fellowmen.

Now the question is: are you able to see whether or not you love the Lord more than you love yourself? Do you have a criterion upon which you can judge whose love weighs more in the scale of your heart?

In order to weaken self-love in you, you have to learn the art of forgiving.

If you have learned to forgive your enemy, it will benefit you greatly. By doing so, your ego will weaken thus lessening your self-love. However, if you retaliate and take revenge, you are causing great harm to yourself because it will strengthen your ego.

Ask yourself: is it easy for you to forgive others, especially those who have really damaged your good name, who are slandering and back-biting against you? It will always hurt; but relatively, it will become easy to say, ‘No, I am not going to retaliate. I will forgive.’

True forgiveness is not verbally saying, ‘I forgive you.’ Rather, it means there are no negative emotions or malice in your heart for that person. Your heart is clean.

About the Author

Younus AlGohar is the Representative of the Awaited One Lord Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi and CEO of Messiah Foundation International. He has been recognised as an Ambassador of Peace and Man of Valour. He is an advocate of divine love and interfaith harmony.